Agreement Imminent on Gigantic Australian Gas Project

Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Royal Dutch Shell will finalize agreement next week on development of an enormous Australian natural gas field, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times reported today, The Gorgon field is thought to contain on the order of 40 billion cubic feet of natural gas, the equivalent of 6.7 billion barrels of oil, and will cost in excess of $40 billion to exploit. Together with about a dozen other major gas projects in Australia, Gorgon may soon make the country the world’s leading exporter of LNG—and its exports will help a number of major Asian economies somewhat lesson their dependence on dirty, carbon-intense coal. According to Chevron, leader of the Gorgon project, long-term contracts already have been secured with customers in China, Japan, South Korea, and India, and more such contracts are in the works.